The Saudi Armed Forces
Mapping the Saudi State, Chapter 6: The Saudi Armed Forces I. Introduction Though some commentators locate the origins of the contemporary Saudi armed forces in the few dozen tribal warriors that helped Abdulaziz Al Saud reconquer his family’s ancestral base of Riyadh,1 a quick study of the historical record reveals a starkly different picture. The Saudi government’s army, navy, and air force, organized by the Ministry of Defense and Aviation (MODA), are largely foreign constructs. From their haphazard conception in the 1930s and ‘40s through the present day, these forces have owed what prowess they possess to the equipping and training efforts of Egyptian, British, and US missions and even private firms. In a certain sense, the Saudi military and the ministry that oversees it are contractual, and not national, bodies. The government’s willingness to place its national defense in international hands, though crucial to understanding the armed forces’ historical development, is a symptom of the ruling family’s larger political calculus. Governing a fractured populace along patrimonial lines, the Saudi elite want an army strong enough to dominate their neighbors and fend off regional competition, but weak enough to never challenge their absolute rule. Oscillating between viewing the armed forces as both threat and tool, the ruling family has created a body organized along sectarian and tribal lines, incapable of effectively operating without significant foreign assistance. Chapter 6 of Mapping the Saudi State charts the development of these forces, outlines their current strength, and underlines their damaging utilization. Though the Saudi government rarely deploys its military, the armed forces’ most recent action has come coupled with a host of human rights violations committed against the people of Yemen.
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